


There'll Be Peace When You Are Done

by morganofthefairies



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Because we all deserved better, Destiel - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, I'm ignoring that 15x20 happened, M/M, Post 15x19, Post-Finale, Post-Finale Fix-It, Saileen - Freeform, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:15:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27664565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganofthefairies/pseuds/morganofthefairies
Summary: As he and Sam watch Jack fade into the distance, Dean feels a weight lift from his shoulders.They won.There are still lose ends to tie up.  Cas needs to be rescued from the Empty.  They need to check on everyone – Bobby and Charlie and Stevie and Jody.  Eileen.  They need to figure out what to do with their free will.None of that could take away from this feeling, though.~~~~~~~~~~~After defeating Chuck, Sam and Dean need to figure out what comes next.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester, Jack Kline & Dean Winchester, Jody Mills & Dean Winchester
Comments: 26
Kudos: 199





	There'll Be Peace When You Are Done

**Author's Note:**

> This is my take on what the finale SHOULD have been, instead of whatever that trainwreck was.

As he and Sam watch Jack fade into the distance, Dean feels a weight lift from his shoulders.

They won.

They _won._

There are still lose ends to tie up. Cas needs to be rescued from the Empty. They need to check on everyone – Bobby and Charlie and Stevie and Jody. Eileen. They need to figure out what to _do_ with their free will.

None of that could take away from this feeling, though.

“Let’s go home,” Sam says. His voice holds then same disbelief that Dean feels. Sam’s phone rings before Dean can answer.

“Bobby?” Dean can’t hear what Bobby’s saying from this distance, but he can hear Sam’s rushed words. “Bobby, that was two days ago. Look, we’ll explain everything, just meet us back at the bunker. Yeah, see you soon.”

Sam ends the call, and turns to Dean with a grin.

“They all back?”

“Seems like,” Sam says. “Can we stop by Eileen’s on the way home?”

“Course we can, Sammy,” Dean replies with a grin.

Everything is falling into place. There’s only one person missing from it all – two, if Jack’s refusal to return to the bunker is intended to be permanent (Dean has some strong feelings on that front). One problem at a time.

Defeat God. Check.

Next, save Cas from the Empty. _Then_ have a serious talk with the new God about mandatory family dinners.

They make it to Eileen’s and Sam practically flings himself from the car before Dean has fully stopped which. He gets it.

He would do the same.

He shakes that thought from his head and focuses on being happy for his brother.

Dean stays in the car to be spared their initial reunion – he’s _happy_ for Sam, but he really doesn’t need to see it. When Eileen and Sam pile into the back of the car, Eileen pressed into Sam’s side, Dean takes off for the bunker.

Everyone else has arrived before them, and the rest of the night is filled with tearful reunions and drinking and celebrating.

Tonight they’ll celebrate, Dean thought, although the celebration feels lacking to him. The big fight was over, but they weren’t _done._ Tomorrow they would plan. He could understand everyone else’s need to just be happy for one night.

The next morning, Dean wakes up earlier than everyone else – probably because he’s the only one _not_ hungover for once – and heads to the library.

Bobby is the first to join him. He doesn’t ask what Dean’s looking for – doesn’t need to – just pull a stack of books towards himself and opens one.

It’s noon when they hit their first break – although it isn’t the break they were expecting.

Jack strolls through the door of the library in the same clothing he had been wearing when he had disappeared the day before. Dean looks up, and smiles brightly at him.

“Hey, kid,” Dean greets. “How’s being God?”

Jack only smiles vaguely in response, and then, “I have a solution to your problem.”

“I thought you were a hands-off?”

“Hands-off…ish,” Jack replies, smiling impishly. “Castiel is my father. I want to help.”

“Okay, do you have a plan?”

“Half a plan.”

“We’ve worked with less,” Dean says, standing up. “Where do we start?”

“I can open a portal into the Empty and guide us through it. The Empty has been awake for far longer than it wants to be. We go through the portal and find Castiel, I will offer to put the other angels and demons to sleep and allow it to rest once more.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“We improvise.” It sounds more like a question than a plan.

“I’m in,” Dean says, ignoring the way Bobby rolls his eyes.

“I’ll just be here, I guess,” Bobby grouses. “You come back, boy, you hear?”

“I hear,” Dean replies, patting Bobby’s shoulder as he passes him.

Jack leads Dean into the storage room where the Empty had appeared, and something clenches in Dean’s chest at the sight of the door, but he shoves the feeling down.

Cas had died before – more times than Dean cares to remember – and he always came back. Dean refuses to let this time be the last, refuses to think that Cas is _gone_ , because that would make all of their victories feel hollow.

Something that he’s buried deep knows what that means – what it means that he’s the _only one_ who couldn’t invest fully in last night’s celebrations – but he can’t let himself go there yet. He’s going to get Cas _back_ , and that means Cas isn’t really _gone,_ and then they could talk.

_I love you._

He had let himself dwell on it, sitting there on the floor with Cas’s handprint staining his shoulder once again. He had allowed himself to wallow in the despair of Cas being dead, of Cas dying thinking he couldn’t – that Dean didn’t –.

They could talk after Dean got him out of the Empty.

Dean had known then, sitting on the floor, what he still knows now – he’s a soldier first. Maybe he isn’t the killer he had always thought himself to be, but there had been a fight to finish and it wouldn’t have waited just because Dean had lost Cas.

And now, the fight isn’t over. Dean needs to keep it together for Cas, to _save_ him.

To grip him tight and raise him from perdition, Dean thinks wryly.

Jack stands outside the door to the storage room watching Dean.

“We’ll get him back,” Jack says.

“I know,” Dean replies, unsure of who he’s trying to convince. There’s no other option, really. They have to get him back. Dean can’t fathom the possibility of anything else. Without another word, he pushes open the door of the storage room and steps in, followed closely by Jack.

Once the door closed behind them, Jack’s eyes glow yellow, and a black goo-like mass seems to appear and expand in front of them. Jack and Dean make eye contact before Jack nods, and together they step through the portal.

The Empty is nothing like Dean could have ever imagined. Heaven was crisp and clean and ordered. Hell was dark and dank and cold. Purgatory was alive and raw and real. This was… nothing. 

“This way,” Jack says, and takes off into the nothingness. Dean follows him, passing by countless angels and demons, who look at them strangely but say nothing.

After what might be hours, but also might only be minutes, Dean sees Cas’s trenchcoat and takes off running.

“Cas,” he calls out, and Cas turns just in time to be crushed into Dean’s chest.

“Dean? Jack?”

“Hello,” Jack greets cheerfully from behind Dean.

“What are you doing here,” Cas asks, arms coming up to return Dean’s hug.

“This is the rescue team,” Dean tells him, pulling back from the hug and gripping Cas’s biceps, unable to keep the grin off his face. “Come on, we’re going.”

“My deal was forever, Dean,” Cas tries to argue, but he doesn’t move away from Dean’s grip.

“Hello, Squirrel.”

Dean notices now that Cas hadn’t been alone when they had found him, and he sees Crowley standing with his hands in his pockets, casual smile on his face.

Dean realizes he’s… happy to see him. He squeezes Cas’s arm one more time, reluctant to let go, before stepping past him and pulling Crowley into a hug while Jack moves to hug his dad.

Look, Dean’s feeling… something. There’s a bubble of something light and airy in his chest and he’s glad to see the demon who had sacrificed himself for them.

Surrounding him are Meg, Balthazar, Hannah, Gabriel, and Samandriel, and Dean smiles again. It’s possibly the weirdest mix of demons and angels he could think of, but he’s glad to see them all.

“I found our friends,” Cas says, looking back at them.

“I see that,” Dean says. “Jack, do you think…,” he trails off, looking over at his adopted son.

“I’m rebuilding Heaven,” Jack replies, looking thoughtful. “I could use some help? And I’m sure Rowena wouldn’t mind two more subjects…”

“Are you telling me,” Crowley interjects, “that my _mother_ -.” He cuts himself off.

“Your mom closed the gates and she’s queen bee down there,” Dean replies. Crowley huffs, but then nods. Meg looks less sure, but then shrugs.

“Beats this place,” she replies.

“Good, let’s go before we get stopped.”

As if summoned by their hope for an easy rescue, Dean hears his own voice behind him say, “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Just picking up a few things,” Dean snarks back. “We’re leaving now.”

“Those are _mine_ ,” the Shadow snarls back. Dean turns around and finds himself staring himself.

“Here’s our offer,” Jack chimes in, his voice suddenly sounding more God-like. “You let us take these 7 beings from here, and I make everything else here sleep.”

“Get out,” not-Dean demands, his voice a low growl.

“We _are,_ ” Dean snaps. “Come on. Jack, lead the way.”

“They stay.”

“I thought you wanted to sleep?”

“I _do_.”

“Great, so we’ll _all_ be going.”

The Shadow lets out an enraged shriek that the nothingness seems to absorb.

“You can have one,” it offers. “And then I get to sleep.”

“Seven,” Dean replies.

“Two.”

“Seven.” Dean feels something waver in his chest – because he’s taking Cas no matter what. He’d prefer not to leave the rest of their friends here, but _he’s not leaving without Cas._

He hopes the Shadow can’t sense that in him, that it doesn’t try to call their bluff.

It shrieks again, looking murderously at the group.

“Seven,” it agrees. “And then I can sleep.”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Dean says with a cheeky grin, relief coursing through him. “Let’s not do this again.”

Not-Dean disappears, and Jack leads the group through the portal and into the bunker.

Once reunions are had and goodbyes are said and Dean demands that Jack come visit soon, Jack brings Crowley and Meg to Hell before bringing Balthazar, Hannah, Gabriel and Samandriel up to Heaven with him.

“Thank you, Dean,” Castiel says, once they’re alone. Dean feels the emotions he had spent days shoving down bubble up and all he finds himself capable of is crushing Cas against him once more.

“Never leave me again,” he demands, which isn’t what he _meant_ to say, exactly. He only meant to demand that Cas _never do that again_ , but he doesn’t find that he regrets the words.

“I hope you understand why I had to-,” Cas cuts himself off, pulling back, unsure. “Why I had to summon the Empty,” he finally settles on.

The thing is, he _does_ understand. He’s furious – at Cas for making the deal and never mentioning it, and for laying all of that on him and then _dying,_ and at himself for making Cas think that he didn’t –.

For making Cas think it was one-sided.

“We’ll talk later,” Dean promises. He’s been thinking a lot – about what he wants, and what he wants to tell Cas, and what questions he still needs answers to. “Right now, I think we should go let everyone know that the fight it actually, really, finally over?”

“Jack’s grown so much,” is what Cas says, sounding proud.

“Jack is God now, but he’s still 3 years old,” is how Dean answers. “Come on, saving you was the last piece of this puzzle. Let’s go celebrate.”

The main room is packed when they walk in.

“About fucking time,” Bobby says. Jody and the girls have arrived since Dean has been in the Empty and Dean’s chest swells with emotion again. Cas leaves his side to greet everyone, and Sam appears at his shoulder, two beers in hand.

“I’m not used to the bunker being so loud,” Sam says, his smile soft and fond as he hands one of the bottles to Dean. Dean chuckles in response before taking a pull from his beer.

“To the family we built along the way,” Dean replies, holding his bottle out to Sam, who clinks their drinks together.

“You know, with Chuck not writing our story anymore, we get to write our own. Just… you and me, going wherever the story takes us. All of us.”

“Finally free,” Dean agrees, smiling at the feeling as he looks over at Cas and Eileen talking. Sam follows his gaze and gives him a knowing look.

“Do you know what you’ll do,” Sam asks, sounding like he knows the answer.

“I’m working on it,” Dean replies.

“Does he know yet?”

“Not yet.” He doesn’t bother to deny it. He and Cas need to talk, but the gist of it… Dean knows the answer.

“Don’t avoid it, Dean,” Sam advises, warning in his tone.

“Calm down, Sammy. Dude _just_ got resurrected, and we have some things to figure out.” He pauses, not sure he’s ready to share the next part, but… he’s happy. He needs to tell _someone_ , and of course that someone would be Sam. “He loves me.”

“Obviously,” Sam snorts. Dean glares at him.

“Bitch.”

“Jerk.” Then, Sam wanders off to join Charlie and Bobby’s conversation, and Dean heads over the Claire. She and Kaia seem to have figured their shit out and Dean is _dying_ to tease her about it. They’ve come a long way, and he’s glad for it.

Two weeks pass before Dean and Cas talk.

Dean isn’t _avoiding_ it. He’s really not.

He’s just… not feeling rushed.

They’ve fallen into a comfortable routine in the bunker. He basically refuses to let Cas out of his sight, and Cas looks amused and maybe a little exasperated by him and it’s easy and warm and _home_ and he’s still working on figuring out the words.

Two weeks later though, Dean’s got a decent idea of what to say, and Sam and Eileen are out to dinner, leaving Cas and Dean alone for the night, so he figures it’s as good a time as any to have this conversation.

He grabs a bottle of Jack and two glasses – look, he knows what he _wants_ to say, but feelings were never his strong suit and this conversation is important – before he goes to find Cas.

Cas is in the library, reading, when Dean finds him and drops both the bottle and the glasses on the table and pulls up a chair next to the angel.

“Okay, conversation time,” Dean greets. He sees the hesitation plain in Cas’s face.

“Dean, we don’t have to -,” Cas starts, but Dean cuts him off.

“We do,” he says. “Or, I do. You got your speech. It’s my turn.” He pauses. Swallows. Pours the Jack – one for each of them. Cas nods once, and then sighs.

“I didn’t intend to make you uncomfortable,” he says.

“You didn’t,” Dean asserts, knocking back the shot and pouring another one. Cas takes a sip of his own drink. “I’m – you _died_ , Cas,” he says again, feeling dark emotions – grief, anger, regret – curl in his chest at the words. “You said - you said all of those things. You just dug inside me and read my own fears back at me, and then you told me that I was _wrong_ , and you _died._ ”

“I’m sorry, Dean.” Cas looks at him mournfully. “I saw no other-.”

“I know,” Dean replies. “I know why, and we might both be dead if you hadn’t, and the only thing that kept me going was knowing that I _wouldn’t_ let you stay dead.” He downs the second shot in one go and pours a third. “But Cas, you meant to stay dead. You meant to just… leave. Forever. That’s not okay. You can’t do that again.”

“I can’t promise not to put myself in danger to save you, Dean,” Cas replies after a beat, his voice low and rough.

“I want to ask you to promise,” Dean replies, “but I wouldn’t believe you if you did. I would do the same for you. For Sam.” He sighs, scrubs a hand over his face. “I just… I can’t take it anymore, and I think the Empty is officially sick of you escaping, so please. Don’t assume I’ll be okay if you do it again.”

Cas sips at his Jack again, nodded.

“Is that all you wanted to say?” Cas fidgets nervously, not meeting Dean’s eyes.

“No.” Dean pauses, finishes his third drink. “I’m not good at this,” he finally says. “Feelings.”

“Dean, if I made you uncomfortable-,” Cas starts.

“I don’t know what I want,” Dean finally blurts. Cas stops talking. “I mean, I don’t want to die just a hunter. I want more than that. But I don’t know what that looks like. This is the only life I’ve ever known.” He swallows around the lump in his throat and pours the fourth drink. “I want to build a real life.” He takes deep breath. “With you.”

Cas’s eyes go wide and shiny, and Dean reaches for his hand and twins their fingers together.

It feels easy, like something they’ve done a thousand times. Cas stays silent.

“I don’t know what that looks like,” Dean says, pushing through the voice in his head that tells him that this is too much, tells him to bolt. _Not this time_ , he tells it. “I just… I know I want you there for it. I want you with me.”

“I want that, too,” Cas replies quietly. “I know it will not be… romantic. I know you do not feel that attraction towards men.”

“I’m bisexual,” Dean says quickly which – it doesn’t really refute Cas’s statement like he meant to, but it feels important, and it’s the first time he’s said it out loud. The word tastes strange on his tongue. “It’s, uh-,” he scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. “It’s not really something I deal with,” he says. “I was with a guy once, a long time ago. My dad caught us. Not, like, doing anything. But he knew.” Dean hesitates, tries to only drink half of his fourth shot. He wants to be sober-ish for this.

“John did not approve.” It isn’t a question.

“No, uh,” Dean chuckles awkwardly. “He didn’t. He never said anything, but like a month later he brought a girl home. A hooker. Told me to have at her, he’d bought an hour. He never said it was related, but it was. I knew it.” He finishes the fourth drink. This might be the hardest part of this conversation. He doesn’t want to talk about this, but he _knows_ he has to. He needs Cas to understand.

“Anyway, we never mentioned it again and I just. Avoided that part of me. I still liked women, and it was easy to throw myself into that and pretend the other thing wasn’t there. I wasn’t looking for long-lasting connections anyway. Any time the thought crept in, it was like my dad was in my head and I just. Avoided it.” He scrubs a hand over his face, trying to block out Cas’s sympathetic gaze. “I was never – it wasn’t like I thought it was _bad._ I just knew it would disappoint my dad, and I’ve been fucked up on that front for a while.” He pauses again, breathes. Resists the urge to pour another drink. “Eventually, after he died, his voice went away, but at that point, it just didn’t seem like it mattered anymore.” He shrugs, finally meets Cas’s gaze. “Until it did.”

“Dean,” Cas says, emotion choking his words. Dean smiles, feels his eyes burn with unshed tears.

This part should have been the hard part. But here, sitting with Cas, and yeah, feeling pleasantly buzzed from the whiskey? This part is easier than he expected – easy as breathing.

“I love you, Cas.”

He understands what Cas had meant – the happiness being in the _being_ , and not in the _having_. He expects the words to wrap around his throat and choke him, to chase out the peace he’s been feeling since he got Cas out of the Empty, but instead he feels light and airy and...

Happy. He feels happy.

“Why did you not say anything,” Cas asks, words still sounding choked and shaky.

“I don’t know, man,” Dean sighs, reaching for the Jack again and stopping himself. “With the way our lives are, I gave up on the idea of having anything like that a long time ago. Everyone we love winds up dead, anyway, so what was the point? Having you around was… that was a good enough life for me. It wasn’t perfect, but it was what we had.” He looks at Cas again, and sees understanding in his expression. He smiles, more to himself than to Cas before saying, “Besides, you’re an _angel._ I don’t even know how emotions work with you, if you could –,” he cuts himself off.

“If I could love you,” Cas finishes for him, and Dean nods.

“I knew you loved me, and Sam, in your way. I just… I could never be sure what that way _was_. I just… decided to be okay with what we _did_ have, instead of hoping for something I didn’t think we _could_ have.”

“Me, too, Dean.” They smile at each other, and then they’re laughing – at themselves, at each other.

There’s more to say – plans for the future to be made and the like, but for right now, Dean’s had enough of talking, so he presses forward until his lips meets Cas’s.

There are no fireworks. The planets don’t align. The world doesn’t become a different place. Instead, it feels like warm blankets on a cold day – like peace, and love. And home.

The rest of the night is spent with laughter and soft touches and softer kisses and whispered secrets. Sam smiles fondly when he sees them the next morning, but doesn’t say word.

They fall into a steady routine after that – lazy mornings, and laundry, and Miracle, and arguing over who’s turn it is to do dishes.

It’s another week before they take a case – the four of them, together. Sam sits in the back of the Impala with Eileen, and Cas takes the passenger seat, and they head to Akron, Ohio to investigate a case with a father drained of blood, a mother’s tongue ripped out, and two missing children.

Dean smiles almost nostalgically as he pulls his dad’s journal out for the first time in years. It’s been a while since they’ve had a chance to solve one of John’s cold cases, and doing this together – the four of them – feels like the best way to do this.

They track the vampire nest to a dilapidated barn, and one of the vampires ambushes them from behind and grabs Eileen. His head rolls from his neck a split-second later, the blade of Cas’s machete now stained with blood.

The four of them work seamlessly after that, eliminating the nest.

It happens when Dean is grappling with one of the vamps. The masked vampire is pushing him backwards, and he feels something hard press into the center of his back…

And then Eileen is there, lopping the head off the vamp.

He turns and sees something thick and metal poking out of the beam and nods at Eileen in thanks, because after surviving multiple apocalypses, and, most recently, _defeating God himself,_ that would have been fucking stupid.

There’s not enough room in the car, so Cas and Dean agree to get rid of the bodies while Sam and Eileen bring the kids home before coming back. The taillights have only just disappeared when Cas grabs Dean by his collar and hauls him into a frantic kiss.

Dean returns the kiss just as hungrily, fingers threading into Cas’s hair.

When they finally break for air, Cas’s lips are swollen and his eyes are wild.

“You could have died,” Cas says, his voice rough.

“The stupid nail thing in the wall? C’mon, Cas, I’m not going out like that,” Dean replies, not letting go of Cas. “Besides, my partner is an angel. He can heal me when I do something stupid.”

“ _No,_ Dean,” Cas says emphatically. “My grace has been… depleting. It has been for a while now, but it’s been happening faster since I returned from the Empty. I do not know if I could have-.” Dean cuts him off with another rough kiss.

“You’re becoming human, then,” he asks, afraid to get his hopes up. It had been one of the big questions looming over them – what happens when Dean ages, and Cas stays Cas.

“I believe so,” Cas replies. “I know it isn’t ideal, but-.” Dean cuts him off with another rough kiss, warring emotions flooding through him.

Relief, joy – because maybe this means he and Cas can grow old together.

Fear – because if something goes wrong…

He doesn’t follow that train of thought any further, losing himself in Cas’s mouth.

This is the future he wants. Him and Cas. Sam and Eileen. Jack. Bobby. Charlie and Stevie. Jody and the girls. Donna. Maybe even Adam, and Garth. He wants it so badly it aches.

Sam and Eileen pick them up an hour later, after they’ve burned the vampire’s bodies.

A week later, he tells Cas – his words stilted and hesitant – that he wants to stop hunting. Maybe not forever, but for now.

“A normal life, then,” Cas asks, his voice neutral.

“We’ll never have a normal life, Cas. We met in Hell. Our _friend_ is Queen of Hell, and our _son_ is God, and our whole family is a bunch of hunters. But… I don’t want to go out bloody. I want to build a life with you, and I can’t do that if I die.”

Cas doesn’t say anything at first, only smiles – big and bright and elated – before crashing his lips into Dean’s.

They don’t say anything for a while after that.

He tells Sam two days later, and Sam laughs.

“Eileen and I decided the same thing,” Sam tells him. “After the last hunt…,” he pauses, and Dean remembers the split-second of fear before Cas had decapitated the vamp that had grabbed Eileen.

“Me, too,” Dean replies, in lieu of Sam finishing his sentence. “I don’t know if I’m done forever. Hunting is in my – our – blood.” Sam nods.

“But I’m ready for something else. For now.”

Sam moves in with Eileen two months later, and Dean is overwhelmed with happiness for him. He and Cas don’t talk about leaving the bunker. Even though they’re ready for a different life, this is the only place that’s felt like home to Dean since before his mom died the first time.

They all go to Sioux Falls for Christmas. Dean prays to Jack to tell him that Christmas dinner is at 6 at Jody’s house and he better take a few hours out of being God to eat dinner with them. He even texts Adam with the information – let’s him know that they understand if he doesn’t want to come, but they’d love to have him.

It’s 5:45 and they’re all there – Garth and Bess and the kids even FaceTime from their own family’s Christmas – and Dean has to grab Sam’s arm for a minute to ground himself. His mind is full of stolen presents and shitty food and cheap motel rooms. Now, he looks around at their family – the one they built from scratch, and Dean’s feeling overwhelmed by it all.

Jody is sitting with Bobby and Charlie, while Stevie talks to Eileen and Claire and Patience. Alex is laughing at something Cas said, and Donna’s face is red from her wine as she giggles at something Kaia is saying.

“Our Christmas list is a little longer this year,” Sam mentions, and Dean laughs, because it’s true, and it’s a ridiculous comment, and he never thought he’d have this.

There’s a knock on the door, and Jody grabs her gun before she answers it. Claire and Kaia pull knives from nowhere, just in case, and everyone falls silent as they wait. Family or not, they’ll always been _them._

“I hope I’m not too late,” comes Adam’s voice from the door, and Dean smiles as Sam looks at him in shock. “I was trying to decide whether I should come.”

“Right on time,” Jody promises, and they can hear the smile and the warmth in her voice. “Come on in, food should be ready soon.”

Adam greets Sam and Dean somewhat awkwardly, and everyone else much more warmly, and it’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Jody recruits Sam, Dean, Claire, and Kaia to set the table – “Alex and Patience do it _all the time_ ,” she insists – and just as they’re about to sit down for dinner, Jack appears from seemingly nowhere.

“I have a front door,” Jody insists, sounding exasperated while elbowing everyone else out of the way to hug him first. Which. Rude.

They all take their turn hugging the new God, and then they sit down, and Jody insists Jack take the first helping.

“Stop trying to win favor with God,” Claire huffs good-naturedly.

“I don’t know when the last time he ate a real meal is,” Jody insists, and they all laugh.

The next day, Dean, Cas, Sam, and Eileen stop by the house to say goodbye before they drive back to Kansas.

“Are you and Cas ever going to move out of that bunker,” Jody asks him when they’re alone in the kitchen.

“We, uh, haven’t discussed it,” Dean says. Cas has been staying in Dean’s room since they night they had their Talk. Dean had meant to move slower but. Well, it’s been over a decade. He figures that’s plenty slow.

“Sioux Falls isn’t a bad place to live,” Jody says. “And I’m the sheriff. I bet I could find you boys some work that wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows. You know, if you wanted to be closer.”

“I’ll think about it,” Dean promises.

“Do that.”

Dean and Cas move to Sioux Falls three months later. Sam and Eileen come with them to help them move, and Dean and Sam pretend not to get teary at the idea of living so far apart, but Sam and Eileen still take cases sometimes and they’re hesitant to move so far from the bunker.

It’s good. They’ll always be close, but they can live their own lives. 

A year later, Sam and Eileen move two towns over from Sioux Falls. The contents of the bunker moves first – slowly, in to Dean and Cas’s basement that now doubles as their research library, because Cas and Bobby are managing the hunter network.

It’s only a month after they settle into their new house that Eileen shows them her engagement ring.

The ceremony is small. Jack officiates, which Alex finds _hysterical_. She shows up with Adam, which is. Weird.

Almost exactly nine months after the wedding, Eileen gives birth to their first kid – a little girl named Mary Ellen Winchester, and Dean cries when he holds her.

“Have you ever thought of having that,” Cas asks Dean when they get home from meeting Mary. “A marriage? A child?” Dean thinks about it for a minute before answering.

“I think I always liked the idea of those things,” Dean says. “It all seemed so normal, and peaceful.” He pauses, considering. “I had a version of that, with Lisa and Ben.” It’s the first time he’s mentioned them since the hospital, and something inside of him twinges painfully. “And I loved them, but it never felt… right. Something was off. Maybe it was because I never loved Lisa like I love you, but… I like our life.” He pauses again. “I would marry you tomorrow, but we have Jack and Miracle. We have Mary – and I’m sure she won’t be the last kid to come around for us to spoil.”

Cas smiles, and kisses him soundly.

“Okay,” Cas says when they break their kiss.

“Okay?”

“I want that, too,” Cas said. Then, leaning back and smiling cheekily. “But your proposal has to be better than _that_ for me to say yes.”

He takes off through the house before Dean can fully process his words. When he does, he takes off after him, grinning.

Dean proposes to Cas in the barn where they first met. Or, well, next to the barn, because the barn itself is barely standing and is definitely a health hazard and picnics are better under the stars anyway. He does the whole thing where he gets down on one knee with a ring and a speech.

Cas barely lets him start his carefully planned speech before he’s hauling Dean to his feet and chanting _yes yes yes_ against his lips through tears and Dean is crying too and it’s kind of a mess.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

They get married – Jack officiates again – and Dean pretends not to cry but no one believes him, and Adam is his best man because _Cas claimed dibs on Sam_ and _Sam agreed._ Honestly, Dean isn’t mad about it but _what the fuck._

Decades later – after births and birthdays and weddings and holidays and love and lives well-lived – they slowly pass, one by one, into Heaven.

They lose Bobby first. It’s quick – a heart attack when he’s 87 – and they cry and give him a proper hunter funeral.

Jack lets them know that he’s settling in nicely upstairs – Jack and the angels have long since finished their remodel of Heaven and everyone is together and the two Bobbys are getting along great. Charlie pales, realizing this means there’s another Charlie upstairs.

“She’s very excited to meet you,” Jack tells her. Then, “Maybe let her wait a while?”

Jody goes next, her family by her side in the hospital.

When it’s Dean’s turn, he’s greeted by everyone he’s lost – his parents, Jody, both Bobbys, Jo, Ellen, and Ellen’s husband Bill. Missouri thanks him for taking care of Patience for her. Mick Davies and Arthur Ketch shake his hand; Charlie asks about her apocalypse-world counterpart. Rufus and Ash hug him exuberantly. Pamela Barnes winks at him. Kelly Kline hugs him and thanks him, tears in her eyes, for taking care of her son. Even Becky is there, looking more serene than he’s ever seen her.

Dean hugs them all – even Kevin, when he eventually showed up with a “sorry I’m late, guys.”

(“Obviously I wasn’t going to let him wander around as a ghost,” Jack said, almost affronted.)

Sam is the next to join them, and his welcome crew is nearly identical to Dean’s, with the exception of –

“ _Jess?_ ”

They talk, and Jess forgives him for not telling her everything – tells him she was never angry in the first place. She asks about Eileen, and tells him she’s happy for him, and they both cry and she agrees to visit sometimes – she lives in a section of Heaven with her own friends and family.

Cas is next, and he embraces his husband tearfully when he sees him.

They’re more youthful than they’ve been in a long time. When his soul had ascended, Hannah had greeted him at the gate and ask him how old he would like to appear.

He could have said 26, when he got his brother back from college and they were in the prime of their lives. He could have said 31, when he’d ended his first apocalypse. There was only one number that really jumped out at him, though: he had been 43 when he had defeated God and earned the right to write his own story. He had been 43 when he had found Cas, and given up hunting, and watched Sam find love with Eileen.

And so here he is in Heaven: 43 years old and surrounded by his family, waiting for the rest of them to join, and joyful in the knowledge that they were living their lives until then.

While he waits for everyone else, he takes Cas to the Roadhouse, where Ash is sleeping on the pool table, and Ellen is smiling as she watches her husband and Jo and Charlie from behind a bar, and John and Mary and the Bobbys and Rufus are at a table swapping hunting stories.

“Ready for an eternity with me,” Dean asks, smiling at his husband.

“Always, Dean,” Cas tells him.

And so they sit down at the bar.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
